


Outside Edge

by SpyBabies



Category: Dancing with the Stars (US) RPF, Maksyl - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 18:13:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3946723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyBabies/pseuds/SpyBabies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Does being completely open and honest in a relationship work?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Outside Edge

He breathed deeply and started for the third time, “C-H-M-E-R”  
The woman on the other end of the line cut him off. “Sir, do you have your reference code? It would be a lot easier. I can just check that.”  
Maks sighed again and leaned to pull his wallet out of his pocket. He opened the billfold, where the bills were lined up in descending numerical order, all facing the same direction. He rifled through to the last twenty and pulled out a business card with a sticky note attached to it. He peeled the sticky off and placed it on the table in front of him and scanned the card for the information the woman sought. Placing his thumb on the first digit, he looked up at Meryl who sat next to him at the lunch table, perusing her Instagram feed on her phone. He silently mouthed, “Sorry,” and gestured towards the phone. She flapped her hands in response, signaling “no worries.”   
As he began to slowly read the digits, Meryl peered at him, watching. She had just missed being near him and lunch today almost felt as easy as old times. As her eyes drifted back towards her phone, they stopped on the sticky note, which he was rubbing into the table, as if to permanently stick it to the surface. The large letters scrawled in his slanted script read “outside edge.” She pulled her eyes immediately back to her screen, feeling like she had violated his privacy, and stared vacantly at the screen while her mind traipsed through the possibilities. The first thought – he is learning about skating and he wants to skate with me. She quickly tamped those thoughts down; maybe in the spring or the winter, but not now. She mentally kicked herself and intentionally set her thinking off in a new direction. Was it a stage direction or a production team for Sway? Perhaps a new restaurant in town? A new book? – he had been reading a lot lately.  
Lost in her own thoughts, she didn’t hear him conclude his call and ask if she was alright.   
“Meryl? You okay?” he asked again, noting her glassy eyed look.  
“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” she stuttered, caught off-guard. “Just lost in my own thoughts.”  
“Ah yes,” he teased, “the puppies of Instagram will do that to you.” He nudged her arm in a playful way and she nudged him right back. The smiled at each other and laughed as she showed him her new favorite pup. Maks continued, “You ready to go or do you need another minute?”   
Meryl took the last sip of her water, jammed her phone in her purse, and unfolded her legs.   
“I’m ready,” she replied and reaching up to him from her seat at the table. He grabbed her hand and mimed pulling her up strenuously. After she rose, their hands remained connected and their fingers automatically intertwined, her pinkie looping between his first and middle finger, their thumbs overlapping. They squeezed each other and looked into each other’s eyes. “Shall we go?” she asked, breaking the moment.   
Maks reached down, swiped the sticky note and placed it back in his wallet with the business card. He stuffed the wallet back in his pocket and led her out of the restaurant onto the warm streets of New York City in the direction of the studio. They walked in silence for a few feet, but the space between them was heavy.   
“Just spit it out. What is it?” he queried.   
“What?” she replied.  
“You and I both know there is something on your mind. Just say it. I can feel your question.”  
It was scary how closely they knew each other and how they could just sense if something was off by just the looks and unspoken words between them.  
She paused. “Fine, the sticky. What does outside edge mean?” she hopped in front of him, stopping their forward progress, “Maksim Chmerkovskiy, are you learning how to figure skate? I can help you with your outside edge technique, if you want, I’m a pretty decent skater y’know.” She flashed a smile at him and waggled her eyebrows in an over-dramatic fashion. She laughed and he chuckled, breathing deeply again. She resumed her position next to her and they walked down the street, swinging their hands.   
“It’s nothing. Really.”  
“Nothing?” she pressed. “So nothing that you had to write it down and keep it in your wallet?”  
Maks drew in a deep breath. She always saw through his lies to the truth. “It’s something Teddy was talking about with the guys the other night. They made me write it on a sticky to think about. Guy time apparently has homework now.” He was quiet and she waited. It was silent for a minute and he picked up where he left off. “They were talking about the outside edges they have with the people they were dating. Like, I can deal with any crazy you dish out to this point. It is kind of a line that you determine at the beginning of a relationship to decide where, you break it off. And you tell your friends so they can bail you out, you know, in case you aren’t making good decisions when it is time to end the whole thing, because of, you know,” he blushed, “the benefits getting in the way.”  
Meryl smiled inwardly at his shyness around this particular topic. She wasn’t a prude, but her views were similar. Sex was private and sacred, and not really for bar discussion. Not the real stuff anyways. She nodded at him, beginning to understand.   
Maks continued, “They said that I need to figure out what my edge was and if you don’t have an edge, that you have either found the woman you are going to marry or your mother. And you should propose or run far away, if she is your mother, in this case.”  
“So, what is your edge? Or do you have one?”  
“I don’t know. I feel like everything I say is so petty. I keep thinking, like really, you would end a relationship over that? And then I think, if I feel so strongly about toothpaste in the sink and hair weave that I really am not with the right person. Or maybe it is me and I am just so out of control that I just need to cool it.”  
“You aren’t out of control. You have the right to be upset about anything you want to be upset about Maks. The right person for you understands all of those things and will appreciate that about you. I appreciate that about you; you know what you want, how to get it, and then you do it – toothpaste or hair products be damned.”  
He beamed at her. ‘This,’ he thought, ‘is the reason she is my calm. She gets me.’  
Meryl shrugged one shoulder at him. Silently, she pondered her own outside edge. It was a hard question, or maybe she too was over thinking.   
“You thinking about your outside edge too?” Maks asked her.  
“Yes, you totally have me thinking and I am totally seeing your conundrum. Am I too picky or is it legit? Although, I am not breaking up with anyone over toothpaste.” She smiled and hip checked him on the street. He smiled back, the lightness reemerging between them. Their pace continued down the sidewalks of the bustling city.   
Maks cleared his throat. “I thought I found the one with no edges. And then, she made me make edges and that was the end of that.” Meryl nodded knowingly and rubbed his thumb. She didn’t know the details of their break up, but knew that it was incredibly ugly and took several trips into crazy town. “And then I found a person that there were truly no edges with. I think knowing what that was like and how vulnerable it made me has caused me to be so picky. I want that back, the freedom that came with the understanding, the confidence, the calm.”  
“Peta? You still have that,” she began.  
“No, you.” He interrupted, looking at her, questioning why she didn’t know that. “I have no edges with you Meryl. There is nothing you could do that would make me love you less or question our relationship. Even if you did the craziest things imaginable, I would still want you by my side.”  
Silence lingered between them, punctuated by the sounds of bus brakes squealing and she stopped, once again moving herself in front of him. Meryl picked up his free hand in hers and squeezed both. Whispering, she looked up into his eyes and said with a powerful intensity, “I feel the same way.” He squeezed her back and she resumed the position to his side and they continued their walk to the studio.   
Their words were silent, but their minds raced in the same direction. Would it ever work between them? Would they ever have perfect timing? Does having no edges in a relationship really work? As they entered the studio, Meryl dropped her purse in the corner and slid on her dancing shoes. As they stepped into hold, each finger clamped onto the others hand, answering the questions lingering between them. Yes, one day; yes, one day; and loving without edges was the greatest gift.


End file.
